A dairy supplier in New Zealand has been caught falsely claiming products with Indian-sourced ingredients were of New Zealand origin.
Ghee manufacturer Milkio Foods, based in Hamilton and majority-owned by Rajesh and Shrabani Chatterjee, was prosecuted by the New Zealand Commerce Commission earlier this year and now likely faces a criminal fine, Newsroom reported.
The Commerce Commission said last month that Milkio pleaded guilty to 15 charges of breaching the Fair Trading Act – 11 relating to making “false and/or misleading representations as to the place of origin of the dairy ingredients used in some of its ghee products”.
The remaining four charges arose from Milkio’s use of New Zealand’s FernMark logo and licence number, for buffalo ghee where FernMark has not licensed the use of the logo, and for cow ghee where it had done so on the basis of untrue information.
“Milkio breached the Fair Trading Act by misleading customers about the origin of their dairy products with claims like ‘100% Pure New Zealand’ despite importing the core ingredient from India,” The Commerce Commission’s general manager of fair trading, Vanessa Horne told Newsroom.
“Milkio pleaded guilty to 15 breaches of the Fair Trading Act for making false representations about the country of origin of the butter used in their ghee products, and using the FernMark logo and licence number without proper authorisation.”
Chief executive of the New Zealand Story Group, which oversees the FernMark brand, David Downs said it first became aware of that Milkio has provided inaccurate information about the sourcing of its ghee products in 2022.
“We advised Milkio that any ghee made from imported butter would not qualify for the FernMark, and requested they cease use of the FernMark on any products using imported butter,” he said, adding that misuse of the FernMark logo was uncommon.
Milkio told Newsroom that the case not yet decided, the company was not admitting the charges and nothing had been proven, but the Commerce Commission website states guilty pleas were made on April 3.
Milkio’s June 25 sentence has been reserved by a judge, and is set to be delivered on August 22.
